This site is a sort of museum in cyberspace full of odds and ends about life in Budleigh Salterton.
It celebrates among other things the connection between our corner of East Devon - birthplace of both Sir Walter Raleigh and Roger Conant, founder of Salem, Massachusetts - and the United States of America.
The site was inspired by the friendship link established in 2001 with the Cape Cod community of Brewster.

Sunday, 30 August 2015

This is the story behind the recent acquisition by Fairlynch Museum of the beautiful replica of a 16th century communion cup from which Sir Walter Ralegh may have drunk. It is hoped to exhibit the original silver chalice and paten, currently in storage, at Exeter Cathedral. Crafted by one of the city’s celebrated goldsmiths, they are among the treasures of All Saints Church, East Budleigh, birthplace of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtier. In 2018 we will be marking the 400th anniversary of his wrongful trial and execution.

Promotional poster of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' by artist Drew Struzan Image credit: Paramount Pictures via Wikipedia“You have chosen wisely,” the Grail knight tells the hero in the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.' Terrible things befall those who choose poorly and drink from the wrong communion cup.And so it was during the turbulent years of religious wars brought about by the Reformation in Europe.

This chalice, held at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, is decorated with images of saints and scenes from the life of Christ, Its stem and cup were probably made in Germany c.1500 and are later than the base, which has been attributed to Bohemia or Austria and dated c.1400. The enamels contain an image of the apostle Andrew (holding the X-shaped cross on which he died), to whom the church where the chalice was used was probably dedicated. Around it are the Annunciation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension (with Christ disappearing in the clouds). The last scene shows St. Martin (316-97), bishop of Tours (France), celebrating mass as divine flames descend upon an altar with a chalice upon itCountries which embraced Protestantism rejected the decorative, sometimes bejewelled chalices which were characteristic of the Roman Catholic tradition.

The name of Exeter's Goldsmith Street in the city's main shopping centre stands as a reminder of its traditional craftsIn the West Country, up to and including the 16th century, silversmiths relied heavily upon the Church for business. Two notable Exeter goldsmiths of the 16th century were John Jones and Richard Hilliard, father of Nicholas the famous miniaturist.

St Petrock's Church, Exeter Image credit: Robert CuttsOne of the most productive goldsmiths of his age, John Jones (d.1583-84) was a Bailiff of the city in 1567 and Churchwarden at St. Petrock's in 1570.The goldsmiths benefited enormously from changes brought about by English Reformation. Much church treasure was confiscated by Henry VIII, with plate being melted down and reworked to conform to the new Protestant liturgy. The process was even more marked in the 1550s, which saw the seizure of most church gold and silver ornaments by officials of Edward VI’s government.

'The murder of Zwingli' by the 19th century Swiss artist Karl Jauslin Image credit: WikipediaIn Europe, the most extreme example of the tendency to reject such Catholic practices was seen as early as April 1525 when the reformer Ulrich Zwingli celebrated Maundy Thursday with wooden rather than silver cups. Was such Protestant extremism seen in English parishes? “It is hard to be sure what was happening, especially since there was such variation on the ground,” says Dr Laura Sangha, of the University of Exeter’s Department of History. “We do know from churchwarden accounts that many parishes either sold their communion chalices during Edward VI's reign, or they had them confiscated by the authorities. There is also evidence that some parishes bought wooden cups at around the same time, so certainly they were in use in some places.”

Queen Elizabeth I, by the Exeter artist Nicholas HilliardThe brief period of Mary Tudor’s reign saw a return to Catholic practices. But by 1559 when her half-sister Elizabeth ascended the throne England was ready to ready to accept compromises in matters of religion.The young Walter Ralegh had seen at first-hand a country torn apart by sectarianism while fighting as a teenager for the Huguenots in the French Wars of Religion between 1569 and 1572. “The greatest and most grievous calamity that can come to any state is civil war,” he would later conclude in his History of the World. The new queen evidently shared his view. “Away with those torches, for we see very well,” she is supposed to have exclaimed at her coronation, when greeted by the Abbot of Westminster and his monks. Elizabeth’s apparent rejection of the Catholic practice of lighted candles, a relic from the previous reign, would have been interpreted by Protestants as a sign of her reformist tendencies.Equally, the queen wanted to reassure Catholics that she respected elements of the old tradition. “The coronation was a typical Elizabethan compromise with something to confuse and offend everyone,” concludes Professor Richard McCoy in his study of the ceremony, keenly watched by contemporaries for hints of the government’s religious policy in the new reign.

The paten of the original 16th century silver chalice made by John JonesThe Elizabethan Settlement deliberately encompassed a range of preferences when it came to religious worship, and this included more decoration and ceremonial that would have been tolerated during the Edwardian regime, writes Laura Sangha.

A close-up showing detail, carefully copied in the pewter replicaFairlynch Museum’s recently commissioned copy of the 1570s chalice made by John Jones is a perfect example. More than a hundred of the Exeter goldsmith’s communion cups have survived. They made his fortune; churchwarden accounts of St Petrock’s church in Exeter show that Jones was paid £1 15s 5d in 1572 for ‘converting’ a communion cup to make it suitable for Protestant worship, melting down its medieval predecessor in the process. The original chalice on which the Fairlynch replica is modelled is one of All Saints Church’s most treasured possessions. Sir Walter Ralegh himself may have drunk from it.Beautifully crafted by Birmingham pewterers A.E. Williams – probably the oldest firm of its kind in the world - our moderately decorated 21st century version reflects the new spirit of compromise which characterized the Virgin Queen’s reign. Replica it may be, but the latest acquisition at the Museum tells a fascinating story from a crucial period in British history.

Friday, 28 August 2015

Volunteers at Fairlynch are cheering at the news that their museum
has been judged one of the most popular in the region according to a specialist
website.

Heymuseums places the Budleigh Salterton
museum, located in a listed 19th century thatched building described
as a “marine cottage orné” on
the town’s Fore Street, as one of the leading attractions of its type in East
Devon.

The website, which calls itself the United Kingdom´s most updated site for finding
museums and art galleries, puts Fairlynch near the top of its list for the
area, second only to Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. It
currently boasts of guiding online visitors to5,898 museums in the UK.

Facebook logo. For Heymuseums,
Facebook plays a key part in listing a museum’s popularity

The site’s popularity-ranking
between 0 and 10 indicates how popular the museums are on Facebook. The ranking
is based on visitors ("checkins"), Facebook-likes and a number of
other factors, and is updated weekly!

Helpful and informative volunteers at
Fairlynch have been one of the keys to its success judging by other mentions of
the Museum online. “Worth a visit just to have a chat with the staff” was one
of the many words of praise on TripAdvisor.

"The
Fairlynch Stewards are happy to be part of the great team of volunteers
running our Museum,” said a spokesperson. “We are delighted to have been
singled out for such kind comments by the visitors!"

11 August "Despite having lived nearby for
most of my life this was my first visit with my daughter aged 6. We loved it.
The staff are very welcoming and although the museum is small there is a lot
packed in with lots to capture the interest of children. There is a room
dedicated to local geology, one for Sir Walter Raleigh, one for pirate history,
one for the world wars and another for costumes. We spent 1-2 hours here."

29 July "A fascinating place to while away an
hour. Lots of local info and historical pictures. Very knowledgeable and
helpful volunteers. Free but donations welcomed."

26 July "Great small museum. We found this
little museum by chance following a visit to Budleigh Salterton. It's well
worth having a look round; there are lots of things to see. The volunteer room
guides are very friendly and knowledgeable and clearly love what they do."

18
July "Most interesting local museum. Good
displays particularly the new Walter Raleigh room. The volunteer staff very
friendly and informative. Worth a visit just to have a chat with the staff."

13 June Great place to visit on your way to
the sea! Very interesting and the volunteers who man it are knowledgeable and
helpful.

Sunday, 23 August 2015

Sir Walter Ralegh: the Devon hero who lost his head but helped Britain build an empire. His statue stands near All Saints Church in East Budleigh

Exciting discoveries have been made at the site of
an American colony pioneered by East Budleigh-born Sir Walter Ralegh. The finds
will be of interest to the Fairlynch team which worked on this year’s exhibition
to honour the great Tudor explorer and courtier.

Excavation at the Hatteras sites in 2012, where the ingot and counter was found and in 2015, where the rapier and slate were found.

Image credit:University of Bristol

Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have
uncovered artefacts that they believe may help solve the long-running mystery
of the fate of the first English colonists in North America. Excavations on the
Island of Hatteras (North Carolina) have discovered a number of artefacts,
dated to the late 16th century, which point to the possibility that the
colonists assimilated into the local Native American tribe. It is hoped these early
findings could solve one of America’s greatest historical mysteries.

Between 1584 and 1587, a number of expeditions
were sent out from England to establish the first English colony in the New
World. Under the leadership of Sir Walter Ralegh, the new lands were christened
Virginia, and a permanent colony was established in 1587, that included over 100 men, women and children. An expedition to locate the colony on Roanoke
Island in 1590 discovered the settlement, but found it abandoned. The only clue
to their whereabouts were the initials CRO carved on a tree and CROATOAN carved
on a wooden post.

With English settlement at Jamestown in 1607,
there were reports that the colonists had moved inland, and some had been
killed by the local Indians, but otherwise their fate remained unknown.

The University of Bristol's research, working with
the local community archaeology society, has been focused on the island of
Croatoan, now called Hatteras. Here a significant number of 16th and 17th
century native American sites have been located.

At one particular location, a number of dated
artefacts have been uncovered that point to both the presence and the survival
of descendants of the Lost Colony into the mid-17th century. Some of these
artefacts were found in late 16th century levels, and include German stoneware
and copper ingots.

A late 16th century Nuremberg counter. An identical token has been found on Roanoke island, where the colonists first settled. Such counters were produced in England during the Middle Ages, but by the mid 16thcentury, the Nuremberg jeton-makers had effectively cornered the English market.

Image credit:University of Bristol

One diagnostic find was a Nuremberg counter, of
identical form to those found on Roanoke Island. Nearby, in midden levels, were
found a rapier handle, a writing lead pencil and a writing slate. Excavations
in the 1990s at this same site discovered an Elizabethan gold ring and a
snaphaunce (musket mechanism) from the
1580-1600 period.

These midden levels date to the mid-17th century,
and suggest that some of these precious artefacts were curated over a period of
time before being discarded.

Professor Mark Horton, Professor of Archaeology at
the University of Bristol and the director of the excavations with the Croatoan
Archaeological Society, said: “These are still just clues, we have no
smoking-gun proof that the colonists survived into the 17th century, but the
discovery of so many high-status objects in one place does suggest that
possibility - the colonists moved into the local Native American community and
became assimilated.”

Scott Dawson, the president of the Croatoan
Archaeological Society, which has been sponsoring the project, said: “We have
always thought that the colonists survived on Hatteras Island, and it is very
exciting that the archaeological evidence is now beginning to support this
idea.”

The excavation work will continue in 2016, and it
is hoped that a full report on the finds and their detailed analysis will be
published shortly after.

Saturday, 22 August 2015

Visitors
seeking local memories of the 1914-18 world conflict have only another six
weeks to go until the main season ends at Fairlynch on Sunday 27 September.

Our
Great War exhibition can be seen again briefly when the Museum re-opens during
the school half-term before finally being dismantled. But our neighbours in Exmouth – all
volunteers just as in Budleigh – staged their own Great War display and their
museum remains open until the end of October.

Exmouth
is just a few miles along the coast from Budleigh Salterton. So it’s no
surprise to find, from a rummage in the archives, that at least a dozen men
associated with the Lower Otter Valley who died on active service during World
War One also had links to the larger town.

As
at Fairlynch, there are photos of local men who served in the conflict.

Among
them is Private Arthur Palmer, pictured above, recorded as having died at the Battle of Loos on
25 September 1915. He’s described in Exmouth Museum’s ‘Faces of the Great War’
panel as living with his wife on Halsdon Road in the town.Born in East Budleigh, he is listed on the
war memorial in that village. But his
name appears also on Exmouth’s and Seaton’s!*

There’s a fine display of the medals won by some of these men.

Exmouth
Museum must have been delighted to be given by his widow the medal ribbons worn by the
noted WW1 flying ace Douglas Carbery MC, DFC (1894-1959). A British Artillery officer, he was credited with six aerial victories
while attached to the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. He later returned to the artillery, and
commanded an anti-aircraft brigade during World War II, retiring with the rank
of brigadier.

Pride
of place in the Exmouth Museum display goes to the town’s two VCs.

Featured above is Flight
Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Warneford of the Royal Naval Air Service. He won his award
on 7 June 1915 for destroying a German airship, but died in a flying accident
ten days later. The epic tale of how he destroyed Zeppelin No 37 is well worth
a read.

Two years ago, Reginald Warneford’s name was in national
headlines after a government ruling that only British-born Victoria Cross recipients would be honoured with commemorative paving stones in their home towns, and
Warneford had been born in Darjeeling, India.

Warneford's own drawing of his downing of the Zeppelin

A
vigorous media campaign to reverse the ruling led to the laying of a special
memorial flagstone during a VC dedication service at the Strand Gardens,
Exmouth on Sunday 7 June 2015 – exactly 100 years after Warneford’s award-winning
mission.

Just as absorbing is the story of the bravery of the Royal Navy’s Lieutenant
Richard Douglas Sandford, who was born in Exmouth.

Pictured above, he won his VC for his
command of submarine C3 in the daring raid on the port of Zeebrugge on the
night of 23 April 1918.

There
are helpfully informative notices in Exmouth Museum’s exhibition about episodes
of the Great War such as the Gallipoli campaign...

... and even detailed explanations
of how such hierarchies as infantry battalions were organised.

Among
the wartime artefacts I noticed this tank crew mask looking like medieval chain
mail.

And
this vest pocket camera was
one of a best-selling folding camera series made by Kodak from 1912 to 1926.
Many remarkable photographs were taken by soldiers before the War Office issued
its instruction banning cameras from the trenches in March 1915.

A neatly crafted example of ‘trench art’ on display is this cribbage board,
made from a WW1 shell casing.

There’s
a lot more to see in Exmouth’s Great War display. Don’t miss it. For more information about the
Museum click on

About Me

Born in 1946, in Birmingham UK, of Scottish-Irish parentage, and brought up as a Roman Catholic. Early education may have driven me into teaching, in the belief that schools should offer a more enjoyable experience for children. Studied French at London University, specialising in 16th century literature. Then came 34 years of teaching French, along with red herrings and common sense, at Oundle School, Northamptonshire. Published articles in Etudes Rabelaisiennes, (a long time ago), and a couple of books - one big 'Oundle's War' (1995) - and one small 'The Scientist in The Cottage' (2013) - a biography of Henry Carter FRS (1813-95). Dabbles, and some people say meddles, in many areas. A passionate gardener, moved to Devon partly to grow ericaceous plants more easily. Other interests include family, cycling, walking, photography, reading, music, studying butterflies, chopping wood, DIY, playing on the scaffold tower, and networking for the Greater Good. Married to Anthea for over 40 years. Three children: Emily, Simeon and Rosanna, three granddaughters and two Bengal cats. Like an increasing number of my friends of my generation, I'm a cancer survivor – I hope!